Agenda Lincolnshire, IL • August 3–5

Monday, August 3

6:30–7:45 a.m. Registration

Continental Breakfast

7:45–9:45 a.m. Keynote—Tim Brown Setting the Stage: Understanding the Big Ideas and Foundational Blocks of the PLC at Work Process

9:45–10:00 a.m. Break

10:00–11:30 a.m. Breakout Sessions

11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Lunch (provided)

12:30–2:00 p.m. Breakout Sessions

2:00–2:15 p.m. Break

2:15–3:15 p.m. Panel Discussion—Presenters provide practical answers to your most pressing questions.

Tuesday, August 4

7:00–8:00 a.m. Registration

Continental Breakfast

8:00–9:45 a.m. Keynote—Mike Mattos The Litmus Test of a PLC: Making Decisions Through the Lens of Learning

9:45–10:00 a.m. Break

10:00–11:30 a.m. Breakout Sessions

11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Lunch (provided)

12:30–2:00 p.m. Breakouts Sessions

2:00–2:15 p.m. Break

2:15–3:15 p.m. Team Time—Presenters are available to aid in your collaborative team discussions.

Wednesday, August 5

7:00–8:00 a.m. Continental Breakfast

8:00–9:30 a.m. Breakout Sessions

9:30–9:45 a.m. Break

9:45–11:45 a.m. Keynote—Robert Eaker Would It Be Good Enough for Your Own Child?

Agenda is subject to change.

Breakouts at a Glance

Presenters & Titles

Monday, August 3

Tuesday, August 4

Wednesday, August 5

10:00–11:30 a.m. 12:30–2:00 p.m. 10:00–11:30 a.m. 12:30–2:00 p.m. 8:00–9:30 a.m.

Tim Brown

Student Data Notebooks: Developing Ownership, Motivation, and a Growth Mindset

x x

Raising Questions and Finding Answers in Our Grading Practices

x x

Getting on the Same Page: Establishing Collective Commitments About Learning and Collaboration

x

Brian K. Butler

What About Us? The PLC at Work Process in Early Childhood

x

They Are Not Your Kids or My Kids but Our Kids! A Culture of Collective Responsibility in Elementary Schools

x x

Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap: Whatever It Takes in Elementary Schools

x

Ensuring Teams Engage in the Right Work

x

Daniel Cohan

Building a Professional Learning Community at the High School Level

x

Why Is It So Confusing? Defining Team Structures and Responsibilities in a PLC

x x

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Continuous Improvement Through Challenges and Setbacks

x x

Robert Eaker

Friday Night in America: A Commonsense Approach to Improving Student Achievement

x

A Focus on Learning: What Would It Look Like If We Really Meant It?

x

Aligning the Work of a Professional Learning Community: Central Office, Schools, and Teams

x

Developing a Stretch Culture x

Chris Jakicic

Too Much to Teach, Too Much to Learn

x

Simplifying Assessment Design x x

Writing Quality Questions for Common Formative Assessments

x x

Marc Johnson

Okay, So We’re a Team. Now What?

x x

So Who’s Leading This Thing? I Guess We All Are!

x x

Collaboration Rocks! x

Timothy D. Kanold

Heart and Soul: Living a Fully Engaged, High-Energy, Well-Balanced Professional Life!

x x

The PLC Life of Central Office and School-Site Leadership!

x

Your K–12 PLC Mathematics Focus: Great Instruction and Tasks!

x

Your K–12 PLC Mathematics Focus: Assessment, Homework, and Grading!

x

Diane Kerr

Collective Commitments: The Misunderstood and Often Forgotten Pillar

x x

Answering Question One Through the Eyes of an English Learner

x

Let’s Celebrate! x

Brig Leane

Instructional Excellence via the PLC Process

x x

Sustaining a Highly Effective PLC x

It’s Not Your Fault, but It Is Your Problem

x x

Mike Mattos

Are We a Group or A Team? x

Simplifying Response to Intervention: How to Create a Highly Effective, Multitiered System of Supports

x

Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap: Whatever It Takes in Secondary Schools

x

The Power of One: Creating High-Performing Teams for Singleton Staff

x

Guiding Principles for Principals: Tips and Tools for Leading the PLC Process

x

Anthony Muhammad

Bringing the Four PLC Questions to Life: Systems That Ensure All Students Learn

x

Overcoming the Achievement Gap Trap: Liberating Mindsets to Effect Change

x

Building Culture, Creating Purpose, and Overcoming Frustration on Your PLC Journey

x

Collaboration Is a Lifestyle, Not a Meeting!

x

Getting Started: Building Consensus and Responding to Resisters

x

Maria Nielsen

The 15-Day Challenge: Win Quick, Win Often!

x x

Show Me What Ya Got: Student Engagement Strategies to Keep the Pulse on Learning

x x

Help Your Team: Overcoming Common Collaborative Challenges in a PLC

x

Lisa M. Reddel

PLCs: What’s in It for Me as a Teacher?

x x

Second-Order Change: Moving Outside the Familiar to Build Lasting Cultures

x

Facilitating Great Meetings x x

Jeanne Spiller

Yes We Can! An Unprecedented Opportunity to Improve Special Education Outcomes

x

Less Is More: Developing Essential Next Generation Standards

x

Get CLEAR: A Protocol for Gaining Clarity Before a Unit of Instruction

x x

Leading Your PLC With Intention: Eight Important Considerations

x

Eric Twadell

Uncovering the Diamond in Proficiency-Based Instruction: Rethinking Lesson Design and Delivery

x x

Leadership by Design: Four Essential Conversations for District, School, and Team Leaders

x

Proficiency-Based Learning and Assessment

x

Grading and Reporting for Learning: The Five Stages of Evidenced-Based Grading

x

Mark Weichel

Connecting PLCs to Personalized Learning

x

When They Already Know It: How to Extend and Personalize Student Learning in a PLC

x x

Building Your PLC Toolbox x x

Agenda subject to change.

Session Descriptions Tim Brown [KEYNOTE] Setting the Stage: Understanding the Big Ideas and Foundational Blocks of the PLC at Work Process This keynote is a call to action to energize individual and collective efforts to create schools of high expectations through the PLC process. In 1997, University of Tennessee researchers S. Paul Wright, Sandra P. Horn, and William L. Sanders reported, “As a result of analyzing the achievement scores of more than 100,000 students across hundreds of schools, the conclusion is that the most important factor affecting student learning is the teacher.” More recent studies by Dr. John Hattie have concluded that not only are teachers the key contributors to student learning, but their impact is most profound when they work together to evaluate their effect on student learning. To attain high achievement in every classroom, unsurpassed collaboration must become a school’s priority. Tim Brown sets the stage for the next two and a half days of learning by discussing the three big ideas of the PLC at Work process, their connection to beliefs and practices, and what it means to commit to a focus on learning, to work collaboratively, and to be accountable for a school’s mission, vision, values, and goals. Student Data Notebooks: Developing Ownership, Motivation, and a Growth Mindset Educators in schools with a focus on learning promote a strong sense of self-efficacy in their students. Several recent studies show this is one of the greatest factors of student motivation and engagement. Participants examine the essential characteristics for building student self-efficacy and a growth mindset through data notebooks. Tim Brown shares products teams have developed to engage and empower students in self-reporting and reflection. This session addresses these questions:

● What are the key components of a highly motivated and engaged classroom? ● What products do teams create to improve student learning and ensure self-efficacy in the PLC

process? ● How can teachers effectively use these products to help students own their learning?

Raising Questions and Finding Answers in Our Grading Practices Talking about grading practices is often a touchy subject, full of emotions, opinions, and personal beliefs. However, when schools make the shift from a focus on teaching to a focus on learning, they must be willing to examine policies, practices, and guidelines to see if they support the principles of learning. Tim Brown shows how a staff can engage educators in a collaborative process committed to grading practices that are aligned with learning outcomes. Participants discuss these essential questions:

● What do principles of learning, student motivation, and grading have in common? ● What are the reasons and rationale behind changes in grading practices? ● What grading practices and guidelines do successful teams and schools implement?

Getting on the Same Page: Establishing Collective Commitments About Learning and Collaboration Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ (2005), argues that explicitly stated values are one of the most powerful steps teams can take toward becoming exemplary. Developing a common vision of instruction, assessment, and interventions at the classroom, team, and schoolwide levels are critical steps in the PLC process. Tim Brown shares strategies and provides helpful examples for developing collective commitments and common vision. Outcomes from this session include:

● Understanding the importance of developing explicit commitments with members of a team ● Participating in strategies for developing collective commitments as a team ● Exploring processes and protocols that make values more than a one-time event

Brian K. Butler What About Us? The PLC at Work Process in Early Childhood For years, schools have focused on implementing the PLC at Work process in their K–12 systems, and many preschool programs want to know how to make this process work for their schools and children, too. Brian K. Butler, former principal of the 2016 DuFour Award-winning Mason Crest Elementary, discusses how his former school adapted the PLC model for its preschool students. Mason Crest Elementary implemented collaborative and data-driven PLC processes and combined a preschool special education class with a general education preschool Head Start class. The result dispelled the myth that students with early learning challenges could not only achieve developmental milestones, but exceed them. Outcomes from this session include:

● Learning the administrative team’s role in supporting the preschool collaborative team ● Experiencing the power of common assessments and acquiring the preschool team data

analysis protocol used to assess effective practices and to flexibly and seamlessly group students during their play activities to provide appropriate support and challenge

● Understanding how shifting teacher mindsets and teacher talk ensures high expectations for all ● Exploring how children still learn through play and how teachers can maximize their use of that

time They Are Not Your Kids or My Kids but Our Kids! A Culture of Collective Responsibility in Elementary Schools In order to support all learners throughout the school day, we have to build the capacity for all teachers through a culture of collective responsibility. Abandoning the idea that one or few English language, special education, or other teaching specialists could meet all the learning needs of many students, Mason Crest’s specialist teachers became members of grade-level, collaborative teacher teams to ensure all teachers take collective responsibility for every student. Elementary-level administrators and teachers learn about a scheduling system that allows meaningful collaboration, teamwork, and learning for adults, and which can be easily implemented. This system builds the capacity of all teachers to effectively support English learners, students receiving special education services, and any other student needing support to learn at high levels. Participants in this session:

● Discover how a particular school developed a master schedule that involves all staff. ● Understand the importance of creating meaningful teams and team norms.

● Explore various team meeting structures and purposes that enable teams to focus on planning instruction, assessing student learning, planning interventions for students who require additional time, and planning extensions for students who have already mastered the content.

● Examine the role of English learners and special education teachers in team meetings. Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap: Whatever It Takes in Elementary Schools Schools that function as PLCs must ultimately do two things: 1) build a collaborative culture to promote continuous adult learning, and 2) create structures and systems that provide students with additional time and support for learning. After examining the key ingredients of systematic intervention and enrichment, participants receive criteria to assess their schools’ responses and an action-planning template for next steps in raising the bar and closing the gap. Participants examine strategies and structures to collaboratively:

● Examine core beliefs. ● Identify and reflect on the essential elements of effective Tier 1, 2, and 3 instruction. ● Consider how and what data to use to drive intervention, including progress monitoring to drive

action. ● Utilize resources (human, material, and temporal) to meet the needs of all learners, including

developing a schedule to ensure that intervention is timely, systematic, and directive. ● Examine the most common RTI mistakes. ● Review a tool for assessing the progress and opportunities for the district, school, or team

when considering interventions. Ensuring Teams Engage in the Right Work Taking a page from School Improvement for All: A How-To Guide for Doing the Right Work (Solution Tree Press, 2017) by Sharon Kramer and Sarah Schuhl, participants delve deep into the “right work” of teacher teams. Kramer and Schuhl write, “The best way to describe, clarify, and monitor the task of teams is to delineate the products that they would create from answering the four questions” that drive the work of collaborative teams. Participants gain absolute clarity on what this looks, feels, and sounds like at the team level. Outcomes for this session include:

● Gaining an understanding of the impact that doing the right work has on culture and student achievement

● Acquiring a team protocol for complementing defined tasks, products, and artifacts that come out of answering the four critical questions of a PLC

● Assessing team progress on each task ● Observing a team using artifacts and products to complete a task

Daniel Cohan Building a Professional Learning Community at the High School Level American high schools are charged with being comprehensive and individually focused, serving as the center of the community while preparing all children for graduation and their future. How can high school principals and staff meet these expectations while increasing learning and achievement for all students? The best hope is by adapting PLC practices and implementing strong RTI structures in our high schools.

Daniel Cohan draws from his experience teaching, leading, training, supervising, and supporting high schools of various structures, sizes, demographics, and philosophies to aid staff and administrators on their PLC and RTI journeys. He leads participants through strategies, tools, and techniques to facilitate the development of a highly effective PLC and provides tips and resources customized to the high school level. Outcomes from this session include:

● Building demand for, and collective ownership of, a PLC culture at the high school level ● Gaining strategies to overcome obstacles and model effective PLC practices ● Creating structures to systematically provide interventions and enrichment to help all students

reach higher levels of learning ● Exploring high school schedules and other products to aid school and district PLC journeys

“It’s Just Not Working for Me.” Handling Resisters and Resistance Do these statements sound familiar: “I don’t work well with others.” “This doesn’t apply to me.” “I’m already working really hard.” “We’re already doing all this.” “I need more training.” Collaborative teams are the fundamental structures of professional learning communities, and they must be clear on their responsibilities and expectations. Those leading PLCs will often face individual or group resistance that manifests in many forms. We often confuse resistance with a lack of understanding of one’s role or lack of clarity on expectations. This session explores causes of resistance and ways to address this with individuals and teams. Participants in this session:

● Examine the causes of resistance. ● Explore “loose–tight” leadership with individuals and teams. ● Understand how changing behaviors leads to changing culture. ● Develop effective strategies to address resisters and resistance. ● Learn how to counter passivity and inaction.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Continuous Improvement Through Challenges and Setbacks Like cultivating a garden, cultivating a highly effective PLC requires preparation, perseverance, and continuous monitoring and nurturing. Ongoing challenges and new variables inevitably arise, leading to setbacks, derailment, or paralysis. Leading PLCs is a delicate balance of attending to culture and structure at the same time. We must understand and remind ourselves that challenges are part of the continuous improvement cycle. Participants in this interactive session share their stories and learn from one another about how to maintain momentum in their PLCs. Outcomes from this session include:

● Learning how to stay the course and maintain the essential elements of an effective PLC ● Exploring how 100-day plans can serve as a continuous improvement tool for your PLC ● Clearly defining individual and team responsibilities in your PLC ● Understanding the importance of short-term wins ● Reviewing examples from schools that have overcome common obstacles and setbacks

Robert Eaker [KEYNOTE] Would It Be Good Enough for Your Own Child? After five decades of strong and consistent research, it is no longer in doubt what an effective school looks like. The central question facing educational leaders is, “Are we committed to embedding practices for all students that are as effective as the educational practices we would want for our own child?” This session emphasizes research-based practices that comprise the Professional Learning Community at Work framework which, when implemented with specificity and fidelity, ensures high levels of learning for all students. Friday Night in America: A Commonsense Approach to Improving Student Achievement Teachers already know more about how to ensure student learning than they may realize. Band directors, art teachers, coaches, and other singletons regularly employ successful strategies in nonacademic school settings. In particular, tactics football coaches use to win on the gridiron on Friday nights are similar to efforts school teams use in the academic arena. Robert Eaker reviews practices that lead to improved student learning across the board. He shows how teacher teams can “suit up” with powerful strategies to triumph every school day. A Focus on Learning: What Would It Look Like If We Really Meant It? There is a fundamental difference between schools that function as professional learning communities and their more traditional counterparts: a shift from a focus on teaching and covering content to a focus on learning for every student, skill by skill. While few would disagree with the importance of student learning, some schools struggle with exactly how to embed practices that promote student success in the classroom. This session focuses on specific strategies schools, teams, and teachers use to enhance student success in schools that really mean it when they proclaim they want all students to learn. Aligning the Work of a Professional Learning Community: Central Office, Schools, and Teams A districtwide professional learning community is more than a sum of individual parts. A high- performing school district that functions as a PLC reflects a thoughtful alignment and integration of work at the central office level, in individual schools, and in teacher teams. While highlighting the efforts of highly successful school districts, Robert Eaker describes how these districts organize and align at each level to implement professional learning community concepts and practices districtwide. Developing a Stretch Culture If the goal of achieving high levels of learning for all students is to be realized, then schools must develop a culture that stretches the aspirations and performance levels of students and adults alike. Robert Eaker focuses on cultural shifts PLCs make while developing a stretch culture. He pays particular attention to assessment and providing students with additional time and support to achieve high academic benchmarks.

Chris Jakicic Too Much to Teach, Too Much to Learn What do we want our students to know and be able to do? This question serves as the foundation for the work of a PLC and guides teams on what to assess and respond to. Chris Jakicic shows why identifying essential standards is necessary to having a guaranteed and viable curriculum and to increasing student achievement. Doing this work is the basis of the first critical question teams ask and vital to getting started in the right way. Participants in this session:

● Gain an understanding of how identifying essential standards leads to a guaranteed and viable curriculum.

● Investigate ways for teams to do this important work. ● Discuss how high-performing teams use essential standards to ensure all students learn at high

levels. Simplifying Assessment Design Common formative assessments written, administered, and used by collaborative teams can have a significant impact on student achievement. This session focuses on helping participants avoid making common mistakes in assessment design that often lead to misusing data in response to student learning needs. Participants learn how to unwrap standards into learning targets and how to write an assessment plan to gain reliable data. Participants in this session:

● Understand how unwrapping standards into learning targets helps teams define what proficiency will look like and improves the quality of formative assessments.

● Learn how to choose the right type of assessment to match the rigor of learning targets. ● Discover how to create an assessment plan that leads to a more valid and reliable assessment.

Writing Quality Questions for Common Formative Assessments If educators base teaching decisions on assessment results, how do they know their assessment items provide accurate information? Participants in this session explore how to write items that translate into better information about student learning. In particular, they gain strategies for assessing more rigorous learning targets. Participants can expect to:

● Become familiar with how to write better constructed-response questions that provide teams with more accurate information about what students need next.

● Become familiar with how to write better selected-response questions that allow teams to

respond effectively when students don’t achieve targets.

● Explore ways to choose or develop stimulus information to increase the rigor of an assessment item.

Marc Johnson Okay, So We’re a Team. Now What? Focused collaboration is the key to high-performing teams. Rebecca DuFour states, “It’s not, ‘Did we spend time together?’ but rather, ‘Did the time we spent together impact our work?’” The aim is to ensure that teams stay focused on learning in a collaborative culture driven by results rather than intentions. This session explores ways to develop clarity on collaborative work and the flow of work required for teams to respond to the four critical questions of a PLC through their actions. Participants in this session:

● Develop clarity in their work through team actions in response to the four critical questions of a PLC.

● Explore tools that help teams stay focused. ● Engage in the work of a collaborative team that connects adult actions to student outcomes.

So Who’s Leading This Thing? I Guess We All Are! Every high-performing team has a leader who influences and inspires its members, but in systems where high-performing teams exist, leadership roles are also dispersed at all levels throughout the organization. No one person leads alone. Rather, team leaders exist at multiple levels of the organization. Understanding the role of leaders and having clarity around what is expected in this role are essential. As Mike Schmoker writes, “Clarity precedes competence.” Marc Johnson helps clarify the leadership role in teams, how to develop a systemwide view of leadership, and how to develop leadership capacity. Participants in this session:

● Discuss leadership characteristics and challenges. ● Explore the role of leadership at the district, site, and team level. ● Discover tools and strategies to strengthen teams and develop leadership capacity.

Collaboration Rocks! Cultivating a culture of collaboration is the second big idea of a PLC at Work. All too often, educators treat shaping culture as little more than a feel-good moment at the start of a new school year. Guiding the development of an organization’s culture requires deliberate, purposeful, ongoing action by leaders and team members at all levels. Marc Johnson provides an overview of elements that impact culture and essential contributions at all levels of the organization in shaping and guiding a collaborative culture. Participants in this session:

● Develop an understanding of what most influences culture. ● Focus on the development of common intent through shared mission, vision, values, and goals. ● Experience a hands-on collaborative activity to help process the learning.

Timothy D. Kanold Heart and Soul: Living a Fully Engaged, High-Energy, Well-Balanced Professional Life! Within the culture of a PLC school, the relational expectations, give and take, and sometimes chaotic noise of daily interactions can be overwhelming and exhausting. By understanding one’s daily heartprint, educators are better able to inspire, engage with, and influence students and colleagues season after season.

Timothy D. Kanold draws from the wisdom of his book HEART! Fully Forming Your Professional Life as a Teacher and Leader (2018 IPPY Gold Medal winner) to provide research, insights, and tools from thought leaders inside and outside education. He examines ways for all educators to lead high-energy, happy, and well-balanced PLC professional lives each and every day.

Participants can expect to: ● Examine the H and the E elements of their HEART: their relational happiness and how to

become fully engaged in their work life. ● Discover ways to improve their relational intelligence and impact (heartprint) on others as part

of the PLC culture. ● Learn ways to reflect upon, pursue, and sustain a well-balanced, high-energy personal and

professional life that can positively affect students and colleagues.

The PLC Life of Central Office and School-Site Leadership! School-site, guiding coalition, or central office leaders face the challenge of leading others into the great adventure of the PLC life. Yet, they also must overcome obstacles that prevent full, ongoing, and sustained implementation of the PLC life in their programs, schools, or districts.

Timothy D. Kanold bases this session on chapters 21–25 from his best-selling, award-winning book HEART! Fully Forming Your Professional Life as a Teacher and Leader (2018). He reveals how administrators, program leaders, and instructional coaches can become dynamic decision makers that others follow. As participants identify primary barriers to the PLC life, Dr. Kanold facilitates dialogue to find meaningful solutions based on what is “loose” and “tight” in a PLC at Work culture.

Dr. Kanold indicates, “As we become professionals, we tie our workplace heartprint and decision making to the vision for our work life actions and the results of our leadership wisdom, in order to promote coherence—and celebrate the difficult daily actions of others.”

Participants learn how to: ● Use vision to lead, create, and inspire a sustainable, successful PLC life. ● Help others eliminate districtwide barriers to PLC process implementation by connecting daily

actions to measurable outcomes. ● Commit to a simple leadership heuristic to avoid randomness, chaos, and incoherence when

implementing the PLC culture.

Your K–12 PLC Mathematics Focus: Great Instruction and Tasks! Timothy D. Kanold explores how collaborative teams can improve student achievement in mathematics through the balanced use of lower-level- and higher-level-cognitive-demand tasks and classroom discourse combined with meaningful formative feedback during instruction. This session is based on his book Mathematics Instruction and Tasks in a PLC at Work from Solution Tree’s Every Student Can Learn Mathematics series (2018).

Dr. Kanold shares six research-affirmed lesson-design criteria essential to student perseverance and sustained effort in mathematics class every day. He shares sample mathematics tasks and online resources for teacher support.

Participants use the PLC mathematics lesson-design model to: ● Define the difference between relevant and meaningful mathematics. ● Consider the effective use of prior knowledge and academic vocabulary activities. ● Examine the balanced use of lower-level- and higher-level-cognitive-demand tasks during class. ● Consider the balanced use of in-class student discourse as part of formative assessment

feedback when students get stuck during the lesson.

Your K–12 PLC Mathematics Focus: Assessment, Homework, and Grading! Timothy D. Kanold explores how mathematics assessment and grading can either inspire or destroy student learning. This session is based on Mathematics Assessment and Intervention in a PLC at Work and Mathematics Homework and Grading in a PLC at Work (2018). Both are from Solution Tree’s Every Student Can Learn Mathematics series.

Dr. Kanold reveals eight research-affirmed criteria for creating high-quality unit assessments (quizzes and tests) and the accurate scoring of those assessments. Participants also reflect on and answer the formative question “Now what?” when an assessment is returned to students. The session ends with a brief discussion about research-affirmed criteria for high-quality mathematics homework routines and practices.

Participants in this session: ● Use high-quality mathematics assessment-design criteria for evaluating the quality of current

math quizzes and tests. ● Consider using a protocol for the accurate scoring (grading) of all quizzes and tests. ● Develop formative strategies for student response, intervention, and ownership of learning

during and at the end of a mathematics unit of study. ● Explore research and discussion tools to design highly effective mathematics homework

routines and practices.

Diane Kerr Collective Commitments: The Misunderstood and Often Forgotten Pillar The foundation of a school that operates as a Professional Learning Community at Work rests on four pillars: mission, vision, collective commitments (values), and goals. We find that the foundation of many schools is shaky because they have not clearly understood the purpose and power of developing schoolwide collective commitments. Is your school on shaky ground because staff has not committed to specific behaviors to which they hold each other accountable? This session focuses on this pillar and provides a structure for school teams to refine or develop critical values. Participants will leave with tools and resources to support this important work. Outcomes for this session include:

● Building common understanding of collective commitments and how they ensure the school’s mission and vision are realized

● Learning and practicing a process for creating and committing to schoolwide collective commitments

Let’s Celebrate! “Recognition provides opportunities to say, ‘Let us all be reminded and let us all know again what is important, what we value, and what we are committed to do’”(DuFour, DuFour, Eaker et al., Learning by Doing, 2016). In this session, Diane Kerr focuses on how celebrations are an important tool for sustaining the PLC at Work process and how celebrations build and maintain a positive school culture. She shares her own experiences of celebrating at Mason Crest Elementary School and explores various ways schools can recognize and celebrate improvement, effort, and achievement. Additionally, participants share their ideas and learn from one another. Participants in this session:

● Examine the vital importance of celebrations. ● Explore various ways to make celebrations everyone’s responsibility and ensure that there are

many winners. ● Gain practical and enjoyable ideas for celebrations in their schools.

Answering Question One Through the Eyes of an English Learner What do we want students to learn and be able to do? This question is more complex when we consider the needs of learners who are simultaneously learning academic content while acquiring English language skills. When teams clarify what students must learn and dig deeper into each essential standard, it is important to have a process in place that ensures teams are routinely identifying and planning for the instruction of academic vocabulary and language. When teams focus on the language of the standard, it not only benefits English learners but their classmates as well. Participants in this session:

● Gain experience recognizing and appreciating the important difference between academic and content vocabulary.

● Learn a process for unpacking standards to understand what we want students to learn and to identify the academic vocabulary and language of the standard.

● Explore instructional supports for developing academic language.

Brig Leane Instructional Excellence via the PLC Process How do teams sustain improved instruction through the PLC process? Brig Leane illustrates how the products effective teams create help educators emphasize and track team learning over time. Participants also learn to strategically place team members during interventions to maximize student and educator learning. Outcomes from this session include:

● Exploring critical templates to guide highly effective collaborative teams ● Gaining guidance on collecting team learning at key steps in the PLC process ● Examining how intervention time can best be utilized for teacher and student learning

It’s Not Your Fault, but It Is Your Problem Kids come to school with all kinds of issues impacting their ability to learn. Hardworking educators are hired to ensure student learning in spite of those issues—and society is depending on it. There is no finger-pointing or laying blame in this session, just participants rolling up their sleeves and learning the

best ways to solve problems. Participants explore assumptions we all make about students, proven practices to help struggling students, and ways to effectively accomplish achieving high levels of student learning. Participants in this session learn:

● Fundamental assumptions about students, teachers, and schools that result in positive change ● How to maintain a steadfast focus on student learning ● How to lead a collaborative process of solving problems

Sustaining a Highly Effective PLC What key steps should leaders take to sustain the PLC process over time? Leaders in this session learn to guide their teams toward true interdependence with team-based collective commitments. Educators also learn effective and simple techniques for helping teams review and standardize their processes, set manageable goals for improvement, and develop tracking systems to identify which teams need help. Participants in this session learn:

● Methods to develop truly interdependent teams ● How to develop periodic and learning-focused team reviews ● Ways to maximize effectiveness by recognizing which teams need more time and support, and

how to provide them with it

Mike Mattos [KEYNOTE] The Litmus Test of a PLC: Making Decisions Through the Lens of Learning The fundamental purpose of a professional learning community is to ensure high levels of learning for all students. To best achieve this mission, educators within the organization commit to making decisions based on a critical question: Will doing this lead to higher levels of learning? Practices and policies that improve learning are embraced and those that fall short are abandoned. In this keynote, Mike Mattos examines how professionals would apply this “learning litmus test” and identifies the actions proven to best serve our students. Are We a Group or a Team? Collaborative teacher teams are the engine that drives a professional learning community. When these teams are highly engaged in the right work, student learning accelerates … and when they are not, learning sputters and stalls. Because teachers have traditionally been required to attend grade-level or departmental team meetings, schools often mistakenly assume that merely renaming these gatherings “PLC time” represents teacher collaboration. The act of meeting together does not make a team, but instead, merely a group. Participants in this session:

● Assess if they are currently part of a group or a team. ● Review the essential work of teacher teams in a PLC. ● Learn how to successfully navigate team disagreements. ● Leave with specific action steps to improve your teacher team.

Simplifying Response to Intervention: How to Create a Highly Effective, Multitiered System of Supports How does your school respond when students don’t learn? Compelling evidence shows that response to intervention (RTI)—also known as a multitiered system of supports (MTSS)—can successfully engage a school’s staff in a collective process to provide every student with the additional time and support needed to learn at high levels. Yet at many schools this potential lies dormant, buried under layers of state regulations, district protocols, misguided priorities, and traditional school practices that are misaligned to the essential elements of RTI. This session shows how the PLC at Work process creates the larger, schoolwide framework required to successfully create a multitiered system of supports.

Outcomes from this session include: ● Understanding the characteristics of the three tiers of the RTI process ● Connecting the work of teacher teams in a PLC to effective supplemental interventions ● Clearly defining the roles of classroom teachers, administrators, and support staff in the RTI

process

Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap: Whatever It Takes in Secondary Schools Identifying which students need help is not the biggest obstacle most secondary schools face in providing interventions; it is how to schedule the time needed to provide that help during the school day. This session provides real examples from a high-performing school showing how it creates time for supplemental and intensive interventions. Participants learn specific steps to implement a flexible secondary intervention period, including how to:

● Determine what interventions to offer each week. ● Require students to attend specific interventions. ● Monitor student attendance. ● Allocate staff. ● Extend student learning. ● Address potential obstacles. ● Do all this within teachers’ contractual obligations.

The Power of One: Creating High-Performing Teams for Singleton Staff High-performing collaborative teams are the foundation of any professional learning community—the engines that drive the entire process! Nearly every school or district has educators who are singletons (the only person who teaches a particular course or grade level); educators who support multiple grade levels, such as a special education teacher or reading coach; or educators who provide supplemental support, such as a school counselor, psychologist, or librarian. How do these individuals fit into collaborative teams? This session offers guiding principles and real-life examples of how to create meaningful, powerful, collaborative teams for educators looking to connect to the power of one. This session calls on participants to:

● Learn multiple ways to create meaningful, job-embedded teams for singleton staff. ● Consider teaming options for elective or specials teachers, special education staff, and staff

who oversee unique programs. ● Repurpose a site intervention team into a high-performing collaborative team.

Guiding Principles for Principals: Tips and Tools for Leading the PLC Process The principal has an essential role in creating a PLC. Without effective support and leadership, achieving this outcome is virtually impossible. Specifically targeted to site administrators, this session provides proven practices and examples of how to lead and support the work of collaborative teacher teams. Participants are called on to:

● Learn how to create an effective site leadership team. ● Effectively address violations to a school’s collective commitments. ● Monitor and support the work of collaborative teams.

Anthony Muhammad Bringing the Four PLC Questions to Life: Systems That Ensure All Students Learn This session focuses on systemic implementation of the four critical questions of a PLC. Participants gain a powerful understanding of what it takes to move from theory to practical, systemic implementation. The strategies Anthony Muhammad presents can be immediately applied when participants return to their schools. Participants in this session:

● Practice developing essential standards and student outcomes. ● Learn the process for creating useful and valid common assessments. ● Discover how to methodically create an effective academic intervention system that meets

each student’s needs. Overcoming the Achievement Gap Trap: Liberating Mindsets to Effect Change This session explores the connection among personal and institutional mindsets and academic achievement gaps. The issue of inequality in student learning outcomes has been studied and debated for years and commonly holds that the primary culprit in the fight to overcome the achievement gap is our individual and collective thinking. As a result of this session, participants understand:

● The true meaning and value of school culture ● The power of mindsets and their influence on educator effectiveness ● How to shift from damaging mindsets (superiority and inferiority) to high levels of efficacy

(liberation mindset) Building Culture, Creating Purpose, and Overcoming Frustration on Your PLC Journey This session addresses two vital stages in the process of creating a PLC culture: 1) establishing philosophical agreement and building shared purpose, and 2) addressing staff frustration and reluctance to change. Anthony Muhammad leads an exploration of the theories linking school culture and student learning, and participants leave with practical strategies to start the process of transforming the culture at their schools and districts. Learning targets include:

● Addressing counterproductive belief systems and forming a cohesive team of student advocates

● Analyzing and managing staff frustration

● Understanding the balance between support and accountability Collaboration Is a Lifestyle, Not a Meeting! How is a culture of collaboration created? How can an environment be implemented in which people embrace collective responsibility? This session addresses the collaborative characteristics of a high-performing PLC. Participants learn how teachers, support staff, school administrators, and central offices work together to improve school performance. Anthony Muhammad also discusses staff resistance to change and the leader’s role in building consensus. Participants in this session:

● Construct and protect productive collaborative relationships. ● Create organizational coherence and ensure collaboration at all levels of the school community. ● Understand the balance between support and accountability.

Getting Started: Building Consensus and Responding to Resisters Privatizing practice, isolation, and individual autonomy that have traditionally characterized teaching are the most significant barriers to building a school culture focused on continuous improvement. Anthony Muhammad addresses these questions: How can a faculty build consensus to effect significant change? and What are the most effective ways to respond to the concerns of those who resist even when the staff have decided to move forward? Outcomes from this session include:

● Defining consensus ● Applying the most effective strategies for building consensus ● Learning seven research-based strategies for addressing resistance

Maria Nielsen The 15-Day Challenge: Win Quick, Win Often! This interactive session establishes, reboots, or re-energizes the work of collaborative teams. Schools across the country are using this simple learning–assessing process to connect the dots of a PLC. Maria Nielsen helps teams see the big picture of a PLC and put it all together in a recurring cycle of collective inquiry. The 15-day challenge is a practical way to bring the PLC process to life. Participants in this session:

● Clarify the work of collaborative teams. ● Establish steps for a guaranteed and viable curriculum. ● Explore the learning–assessing cycle in a unit of study.

Show Me What Ya Got: Student Engagement Strategies to Keep the Pulse on Learning Maria Nielsen helps teachers move past “sit and get” in the classroom to a place where all students actively participate in learning. She shares engagement strategies to assess student understanding throughout a lesson or unit of study. Participants can expect to:

● Explore the nifty nine best teaching strategies. ● Learn how to assess student learning by implementing engagement strategies.

● Identify the differences among assessment questions, open questions, and engagement questions.

Help Your Team: Overcoming Common Collaborative Challenges in a PLC What should happen when a team starts to struggle? As teachers move toward becoming interdependent teams, challenges inevitably arise. Ensuring high levels of learning for every student requires a change in thinking and practice. Participants briefly review the work of highly effective teams, consider scenarios showing common team challenges, and work collaboratively to identify strategies for moving a team forward. This session is based on a book of the same title (Solution Tree Press, 2019), coauthored by Maria Nielsen and other educators who possess a wide range of backgrounds and experiences in all levels of education. Participants in this session:

● Identify common challenges that limit a team’s efficacy. ● Collaboratively resolve specific challenges and share strategies to help teams progress. ● Practice specific coaching strategies designed to assist teams in their critical work.

Lisa M. Reddel PLCs: What's in It for Me as a Teacher? “PLCs sound great, but what's in it for me as a teacher?” Teacher autonomy and team accountability are balanced in a PLC. Collaborating effectively with others is a condition for membership in virtually all professions. Yet, teachers often work in isolation from one another. Participants in this session explore the balance of team responsibility and individual autonomy in the PLC process. Learning outcomes for this session include:

● Examining how the simultaneously loose and tight culture in a PLC empowers teachers to make important decisions

● Understanding how team accountability and teacher autonomy can work together to benefit student learning

● Exploring strategies for bringing a collaborative culture and collective responsibility to classrooms and schools

Facilitating Great Meetings Having productive, engaging, and efficient meetings about learning is the goal of every collaborative teacher team. Lisa M. Reddel offers guidance and strategies for facilitating meetings in a PLC that focus on learning and results. Participants in this session delve into clarifying roles of team members, strategies to help teams and meetings become more organized and productive, and how to build consensus without winners and losers. Learning outcomes from this session include:

● Understanding the difference between consensus and unanimity ● Examining roles within a team and methods to support a team's efforts ● Reviewing ways to keep teams organized, focused, and committed to continuous improvement

Second-Order Change: Moving Outside the Familiar to Build Lasting Cultures Culture eats structure for breakfast! Understanding the difference between first-order and second-order change helps any educator address cultural change within their school and district.

Implementing and fostering cultural change in a PLC brings initial results in short order and, in time, lasting results. Building a PLC is a process, not a program. Participants examine how school cultures built to last must first go through cultural changes. Learning outcomes from this session include:

● Understanding the difference between first-order and second-order change ● Examining how educators can apply “change” knowledge to their roles ● Acquiring a toolkit of strategies to manage second-order change

Jeanne Spiller Yes We Can! An Unprecedented Opportunity to Improve Special Education Outcomes Warning: This work is not for the faint of heart! When teams commit to the PLC process and decide to engage in a cycle of continuous improvement, the first critical step is to examine their personal and systemic beliefs about students, themselves, and learning. Only then can they exclaim with confidence that “all really does mean all!” Once team members collectively make that commitment and understand how they got there, they must then define what improvement looks like and how to get to that place. Jeanne Spiller challenges participants to examine their professional beliefs before delving into collaborative structures, the importance of scaffolding, what tailored instruction does and does not look like, and ideas and examples that have resulted in improved outcomes for all students. Outcomes from this session include:

● Understanding past realities regarding special education ● Learning strategies to build a school and district culture with the belief that all students can

learn at high levels ● Examining collaborative structures and tools to support high levels of learning for all ● Investigating the concept of tailoring instruction to meet complex student needs while

maintaining high expectations ● Examining collaborative structures to support high levels of learning for all

● Considering collaborative team meeting structures, content, and focus

● Discussing ways to align IEP goals specific to student areas of deficit, driven by the goal of

attaining grade-level expectations, including alignment for complex learners

Less Is More: Developing Essential Next-Generation Standards Developing essential or priority standards is a necessary and powerful practice. This practice affords teachers the time to adequately teach, assess, reteach, and reassess to meet the needs of all students. Participants discover the importance of a guaranteed and viable curriculum and learn a step-by-step process for determining essential standards that can easily be replicated in their own buildings or school districts. Outcomes from this session include:

● Understanding and articulating how developing essential standards is a crucial part of the PLC process and helps address the four critical questions of a PLC

● Understanding and articulating why developing priority standards is imperative ● Learning a process to distinguish essential standards from state or national standards

Get CLEAR: A Protocol for Gaining Clarity Before a Unit of Instruction This session focuses on a protocol in which collaborative teams can engage prior to a unit of instruction to effectively prepare for the instruction–assessment cycle. The CLEAR protocol engages collaborative teams in conversations focused on gaining collective clarity about the standards that will be taught and assessed during a unit of instruction, proficiency expectations, assessments the team will administer throughout the unit, the instructional plan for the unit, and more. Participants in this session learn:

● How a continuum of assessment can guide the teaching and learning process ● Factors that should be considered before assessment occurs to ensure student data can be

used to guide instructional next steps ● A protocol in which collaborative teams can engage before each unit of instruction

Leading Your PLC With Intention: Eight Important Considerations Implementing and sustaining the PLC process requires diligent leaders who persist in ensuring that their school is a place in which leaders and teachers collaborate, make evidence-based decisions, understand that students are the top priority, communicate effectively, and are involved in trusting relationships. Participants in this session explore eight areas of focus to consider in effectively leading the PLC at Work process.

1. Achieving focus and staying intentional 2. Establishing and maintaining organization 3. Building shared leadership 4. Using evidence for decision making and action 5. Prioritizing the student 6. Leading instruction 7. Fostering communication 8. Developing community and relationships

Eric Twadell Uncovering the Diamond in Proficiency-Based Instruction: Rethinking Lesson Design and Delivery As educators implement proficiency-based assessment and grading strategies, they realize the traditional model of instruction must also change. The teacher, as the sage on the stage, simply cannot facilitate meaningful learning experiences for students in a proficiency-based learning environment. Participants in this session examine instructional design and delivery models that support proficiency-based assessment and grading and learn how to develop an instructional plan to support students in meeting expectations. Outcomes from this session include:

● Examining instructional design models that support proficiency-based assessment and grading ● Gaining an understanding of designing meaningful instructional experiences for students ● Exploring the Instructional Diamond lesson design and model

Leadership by Design: Four Essential Conversations for District, School, and Team Leaders

District, school, and team leaders play an important role in developing PLCs. This session explores the essential characteristics and roles of leaders in creating and sustaining a culture of collaboration and shared responsibility in a PLC. Participants in this session:

● Take part in four leadership conversations that focus on building coherence and clarity for the work of leaders in a PLC.

● Discover how effective leaders facilitate a culture of shared responsibility. ● Examine strategies that effective leaders must utilize to develop a learning-centered culture in

districts, schools, and teams. Grading and Reporting for Learning: The Five Stages of Evidence-Based Grading Standards-based grading has often been cited as the “third rail of school reform.” And yet, this is an important destination on the journey to becoming a PLC that embraces assessment and grading practices and supports student learning. This session provides participants with a roadmap for differentiating professional development for teachers and teams interested in implementing standards-based grading. Participants in this session:

● Gain an appreciation for using a learning map to differentiate professional development. ● Explore challenges associated with traditional grading practices and reporting results. ● Learn how to structure professional development and a learning map for teachers and teams

specifically focused on standards-based grading and reporting. Proficiency-Based Learning and Assessment The old adage is true: “If you do what you have always done, you will get what you’ve always got.” The same can be said of traditional assessment practices. As understanding of assessment deepens, educators must think differently about how they can use assessment as an instructional practice. This session explores how Adlai E. Stevenson High School (“birthplace" of the PLC at Work process) has restructured and recultured assessment practices to focus on proficiency. Participants in this session:

● Explore the differences between traditional and proficiency-based teaching and learning environments.

● Learn the differences between traditional quizzes and tests and proficiency-based assessments. ● Receive ideas on how to begin transitioning to a proficiency-based teaching and learning

environment.

Mark Weichel Connecting PLCs to Personalized Learning School and district strategic plans often include the term personalized learning. Despite the growing popularity of personalized learning, it can be difficult to conceptualize and connect to existing structures, such as those in PLCs. Participants in this session learn about the five elements of personalized learning and see how this work can connect to and enhance the work of a PLC. Outcomes from this session include:

● Understanding why personalized learning has gained popularity ● Learning what personalized learning is and is not ● Receiving examples and resources to support future implementation

Building Your PLC Toolbox PLC teams need to have a number of tools at their disposal to improve instruction and learning. This session provides materials to document PLC conversations, create common formative assessments and scoring methods, and use results to motivate students. Participants leave with a full toolbox of resources for collaborative teams to immediately begin using in their schools and districts. When They Already Know It: How to Extend and Personalize Student Learning in a PLC A basic tenet of professional learning communities is ensuring that collaborative teams acutely analyze the four critical questions of a PLC. For some teams, the most challenging question to address is how to provide extension for students who have already learned stated targets. Participants in this session learn strategies and protocols for teams to consider when planning enrichment for students who already know the material. Outcomes from this session include:

● Realizing the importance of addressing the fourth critical question of a PLC ● Gaining strategies for extending learning for high-ability and high-potential students ● Understanding how teamwork increases student engagement ● Receiving individual and collaborative team reflection tools